Trash Transformed. Lives Changed.

How Heri Changed His Job, His Life, and His Family

How Heri Changed His Job, His Life, and His Family

Sometimes you just know you can have a better life, a better job, and be a better example to your children and community.

That’s how it was with Pak Heri. Heri lives with his wife, 2 children, and a big extended family of trash pickers in Jakarta. Years ago, before the family moved to the garbage dump and Heri became a trash collector, he had a small food card and sold Mie Ayam (noodles and chicken) street food to earn a living. He always wanted to have his own food cart again – someday.
When XSProject and the Business Club at the Jakarta Intercultural School offered Pak Heri a micro-loan to build a food cart, he didn’t hesitate to accept. This was that opportunity to change his life that he had been hoping for.

In no time, Heri had his own food cart built.

Today, Heri is still rising very early in the morning and collecting trash from a small number of homes. While he is out, his wife, Sani, cooks the Mie Ayam and stocks the cart with food. He’s home by 11:00AM to pick up the food cart and is on his way back out by 1:00 PM. He returns home around 9:00PM.

Heri is still not making enough money just from food cart sales to support his family, so he still collects trash to make ends meet. He wants to find a regular spot to park his cart so he can get regular customers and start to build and then expand his business.

At XSProject, we think Heri is on to something BIG That is why we invite you to help us with something LITTLE: A $10 donation to XSProject is all it takes to help a trash picker like Heri realize his dream of having a small business of his own, to have dignity and enough money to no longer be a trash picker.

One person, one moment, your donation and the gift of a lifetime of change. Little By Little, A Little Becomes A Lot and changes lives in a big way! Visit our XSCommunity page to give what you can today!